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Thursday, 25 February 2016

New Year, New Homes

Well the end of 2015 saw an exciting new development for the MAJ - we bought a new property! A house with a one bedroom flat downstairs and a two bedroom flat upstairs near the Spurs ground in Tottenham... in fact as I write this I can hear the singing cheering Spurs fans which I am guessing means they won.

We completed in late November 2015 and three of us moved in by mid December, and as it was a real fixer-upper the place was a bit of a building site. Downstairs had no bathroom and upstairs had no kitchen (or kitchen floor) so for about two and a half weeks the day would start early with drilling, plastering, walls going up, cabinets being hung, great big holes being made for great big pipes and one co-op member up on the roof making it sound so that the constant rain wouldn't drip on our heads as we slept.

The downstairs kitchen and bathroom needed extensive work

What a palaver! But all the main work that was needed to make it habitable was done by Christmas and now those of us who live here are really loving the feeling of a secure roof over our heads for the first time. Oh, and having moved out of a completely unmodernised building, the joys of hot showers and central heating just can't be appreciated enough.

The upstairs kitchen didn't even have a floor!

This has been a major achievement for MAJ - we've been trying to get the rest of our members safely housed for years and it feels great to have three more of us under another MAJ owned roof. Thank you so much to all of those who have helped us with loanstock, gifts, advice and moral and practical support, without you this could not have happened and we are incredibly grateful. But we can't rest on our laurels as we still have one member in a perilously vulnerable housing situation, plus more work needs to be done on the new house (some walls and doors still need putting in, and access to the garden for the top floor flat). More about that soon.

MAJ

We are Mary Ann Johnson Housing Co-op, or MAJ for short. A group of individuals from North London, most of us are either on welfare benefits or low waged. To solve our joint housing problems and to take control of this part of our lives, we have set up a housing cooperative.